£ 286 
.B74 
1864 
Copy 1 



ORATION 



DKLIVERED BEFORE 



THE CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON 



J ! 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1864, 



HON. THOMAS RUSSELL. 




BOSTON: 
J. E. FARWELL AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE CITY, 



37 Congress Street. 



1864, 



ORATION 



DELIVEEED BEFOEE 



THE CITY AUTHORITIES OE BOSTON, 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1864, 



HON. THOMAS RUSSELL. 




BOSTON: 
J. E. FARWELL AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE CITY, 



37 CONOKESS Steebt. 



1864, 






fijxcnang« 



CITY OF BOSTON 



In Board of Aldermen, July 5, 1864. 

Oedeeed : That the thanks of the City Council be and 
they are hereby presented, to the Hon. Thomas Eussell, 
for the eloquent and patriotic Oration delivered before the 
Municipal Authorities of Boston, on the occasion of the Cele- 
bration of the Eighty-Eighth Anniversary of the Declaration 
of American Independence ; and that he be requested to furnish 
a copy for publication. 

Passed ; sent down for concurrence. 

OTIS NOKCROSS, Chairman. 

In Common Council, July 7, 1864. 
Concurred. 

GEORGE S. HALE, President. 

Approved July 8, 1864. 

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor. 



ORATION. 



Meeting to keep the anniversary of our Nation's 
birth in this time of the Nation's trial, — assembled to 
renew our allegiance to the flag, dearer to us in its 
hour of peril than when it waved in unchallenged 
dominion over half a continent, while the varying 
fortune of war " half conceals, half discloses " that 
beloved symbol, — how shall we- approach our theme, 
except by reverently lifting our eyes toward Him 
who holds the destinies of nations in his hands, 
and beseeching him, that as He was with the fathers, 
so He may ever be with us? 

In more peaceful times it would be pleasant to 
linger among the grand events that heralded the ad- 
vent of Independence, — to trace the growth of Liberty 
through the stormy times of the Stamp Act and Tea 
Tax ; through all the agonies and glories of provincial 
and colonial life, back to the day when the wearied 
Mayflower furled her sails within the protecting sweep 
of Cape Cod, and when the woods of New England 
first rang, with the anthems of our Pilgrim Fathers. 
And while you will agree with me that the day is 



6 ORATION. 

to be kept, not by adorning the tombs of the dead, 
but by takmg such counsel as is fitted to guard the 
homes of the living and the heritage of their children, 
yet even now we shall do well to glance for a moment 
at the stirring scenes which immediately preceded the 
Declaration, asking always what is the lesson which 
those days teach to ours"? 

It is good to tread, in imagination, the courts of 
the Old State House, and to hear James Otis pleading 
against Writs of Assistance, breathing into Indepen- 
dence the breath of life^ founding his argument upon 
those principles of natural right, which would strike 
every fetter from human limbs. 

We enter Faneuil Hall and the Old South Church, 
and learn at thronged town meetings how cheap 
our fathers held trade, wealth, comfort, life, when 
their rights as men were at stake. We hear the 
pulpits resounding with appeals to patriotism and de- 
nunciations of oppression. We see the women of 
America denying themselves the choicest luxury of 
their daily meals, wearing homespun garments, weav- 
ing homespun garments, rejoicing that in any way 
they could contribute to the greatness of their country. 

We feel the thrill that runs through all the colo- 
nies ; we hear the word that trembles on every lip. 
The thrill is an instinct for Union, and the word is 
"join or die." We learn that American Indepen- 
dence could only be achieved through Union, and we 



ORATION. 7 

know that by Union alone can it be maintained. And 
it is not " for empire " that the North is fighting ; but 
for national existence ; and, therefore, " on this line," 
and for this end we must fight it out, till it pleases 
God to send us victory. 

Loud threats roll across the sea, loudest of all against 
the unruly province of Massachusetts Bay and the re- 
bellious town of Boston. So it has ever been ; so may 
it ever be. Far distant be the day when the friends 
of tyranny shall speak well of Boston ; when the 
haters of human rights shall cease to hate old Massa- 
chusetts. 

But, while hated by those whose enmity was honor, 
the patriot province and the " martyr town " were 
loved by all who loved liberty. When the Boston 
Port Bill soua:ht to crush out the life of this com- 
munity by cutting off its trade — a threat not un- 
known in later times — then, not only from all the 
villages of New England, but from distant States, 
came the freewill offerings of friends. 

First of all — we will remember it even now — 
came the generous gift of rice from South Carolina, 
which in the hour of Carolina's need our fathers 
gladly repaid. And, a little later, when certain mem- 
bers of Congress denounced the fanaticism of New 
England, spoke of the contest as -her war, and pro- 
posed that she should be left to fight alone, the great 
statesman of South Carolina rejoiced that there was 



b ORATION. 

such a people, and spoke of New England as an asy- 
lum where honest men might take refuge, if all the 
rest of the world should prove false to freedom. 

When the sons of Carolina have learned to love 
liberty with all the warmth of that century, and all the 
light of this, then may the children of the two proud 
old Commonwealths once more remember that their 
fathers loved each other as brothers. 

The distress of Boston was discussed in Virginia, 
where the most eloquent speech was made by George 
Washington. And this was his speech: " I will raise 
a regiment of a thousand men. I will subsist them 
at my own expense. I will march at their head to 
the relief of Boston." How, in the hour of national 
peril, the man of action stands pre-eminent above the 
man *of words ! How, for the last three years, has 
our country, through all her bleeding wounds, cried 
out for one such man ! How all hearts rejoice in 
the belief that at last the man of action has been 
found in our silent, persistent, triumphant General 
Grant ? 

The time for action rapidly approached. On the 
evening of the 18th of April, 1775, British soldiers 
met at the foot of the Common on their way to 
East Cambridge and to Concord. As they embarked, 
two lanterns, provided by the care of Paul Revere, 
flung out theh light from the steeple of the Old 
North Church to warn the minute-nien of Middle- 



ORATION. 9 

sex that now the hour had come to strike for free- 
dom. It was a happy omen, — true token that, when- 
ever the liberties of America are in danger, the 
warning light shall still shine from the church. 
Thank God, that in our day the light is not dim- 
med ; that in the hands of our watchmen the trumpet 
sends forth no uncertain sound. 

And now, as the martyrs of Lexington fall on the 
village green, in the gray light of morning as Har- 
rington falls, and rises, and seeks to meet his wife, 
who is hastening to embrace him, and sinks again 
and dies, before she can fold him in her arms, — tell 
me, shall we unite in the lamentations of those whose 
dearest friends had been slain in sight of their 
homes, or shall we join in the well-known exclama- 
tion of Samuel Adams, himself a fugitive, when he 
heard the fatal volley, and cried out in words so 
often quoted, " Oh, what a glorious morning is this! 
— glorious, because he knew that what was sowed 
in tears should be reaped in triumph ; glorious, be- 
cause history had taught him that God's appointed 
method for the remission of national sins and for the 
regeneration of national life has always been by " the 
shedding of blood." 

Next, we stand by the North Bridge at Concord 
and listen to " the shot heard round the world ! " 
Among the little band of patriots, let us fix our eyes 
on one. The words are few which tell us what we 

2 



• 

10 ORATION. 



know of Isaac Davis ; but they sketch a village hero. 
He hears the alarm-drum, and, making haste to obey 
the summons, as he leaves his house at Acton, he 
says to his wife, " Take good care of the children," 
as if the shadow of death fell even then upon his 
eyes. His company march to Concord to the live- 
liest of homely tunes, as little martial as the Spartan 
flute, which poets have loved to commemorate. He 
briefly reports to the commanding officer : " I have n't 
a man that is afraid to go." He claims the advance, 
and as he steps forward to meet the fatal bullet, 
a light glows on his face and kindles in his eyes, 
which his companions never could describe and never 
could forget. Who knows what visions were vouch- 
safed to him in that moment, — visions of indepen- 
dence achieved, of America triumphant — -promises, it 
may be, of the greater glory yet to be 1 When we 
read of such a death, we know what the poet meant 
when he wrote — 

" One glorious hour of crowded life, 
Is worth an age without a name." 

It was a sad moment when his lifeless form was 
born to the presence of his bereaved wife. But as 
years rolled on, — as the new^s of Saratoga and York- 
town, of peace and victory, were carried to the deso- 
lated home, — who does not believe that grief was 
forgotten in joy and pride, and gratitude, that she 



ORATION. 11 

had been allowed to make so dear a sacrifice for her 
country's cause 1 And when the representatives of 
thirty powerful States ministered to her wants ; when 
the words of monumental inscriptions, of orators and 
of historians paid tribute to the dead, do you think 
she envied her neighbors, who together had lived out 
their eighty years of peace and comfort "? or would 
she not rather exclaim : " I would not give the memory 
of my dead husband for any position in Christendom ! " 
Some of you have sent to the war husbands, brothers, 
sons, who will no more return forever. For you 
there is a mournful sound even in the bells that 
usher in the old Jubilee of Freedom. The morning 
and noon, and evening salutes seem like the minute- 
guns that mark the burial of the dead. But because 
they died for Union and for Liberty you do not count 
their lives as lost. Already, those whose friends fell 
on the 19th of April, 1861, feel comforted as they 
see loyal Maryland standing side by side with Massa- 
chusetts, and Baltimore pressing hard upon the ad- 
vancing footsteps of Boston. And when the work 
of loyalty is complete ; when our country stands 
before the world triumphant and peaceful, purified 
by adversity, ennobled by her trials, with old preju- 
dices forgotten, with new powers displayed, with 
grand virtues developed, with a new name among 
the nations, with a new and nobler life in her own 
heart; when the old national anthems, the old 



12 ORATION. 

national standard, the old national anniversary, shall 
be the common glory of all the States, and of all 
the people in all the States, then will the blood of 
the fallen have borne its perfect fruit, and the sorrow 
of death will be swallowed up in the joy of victory. 
The swift pursuit that followed the retreating 
British, and besieged them within the walls of 
Boston, attested the ready patriotism of our fathers. 
But it bore witness, also, to the drill and discipline 
with which those fathers had prepared the militia 
of New England for their country's service. Here, 
too, is a lesson for this day ; and here, again, we 
match the lesson of the past. After the lapse of 
eighty-six years, Massachusetts was again called on 
for prompt action in arms. Her response is part of 
the history of the Union. All honor to the patriot- 
ism, that rallied so grandly to defend the Capital. 
Honor to the noble Governor in whom that patriot- 
ism was embodied. And one word of remembrance 
and of honor to-day and always, for the predecessor 
of that Governor, who recognized the value of a 
citizen soldiery, before it was fashionable to recog- 
nize it; who helped to raise the volunteer militia 
from their low estate, and prepared them for the 
service of their country. " Holiday soldiers," men 
called them once. And, in many a bloody field, 
they have shown that the day which brings them 
face to face with armed Rebellion is to them the 
brighest holiday of their lives. » 



ORATION. 13 

Next, in reviewing the early scenes of war, we 
stand on Bunker Hill and share the varied emotions 
that belong to the 17th of June. In darker hours 
we have loved to remind each other that our exist- 
ence as a nation dates from a lost battle. On the 
evening of that day swift couriers told the country 
that our fathers had retreated ; that Charlestown was 
in ashes ; that Warren was among the slain. But 
they told of such a spirit, and aroused such a spirit, 
as was an assurance of final victory. So did this 
contest begin with a lost battle for the North. But, 
as we saw how the tidings were received, we could 
not call it wholly a disaster. We saw a noble na- 
tion not sinking in despair, but rising in defiance. 
The languid love of country which had slept in 
hours of peace, became "the live thunder" of awak- 
ened and indignant loyalty. And the people came 
forward offering their substance, their services, their 
lives ; ready to sacrifice that which it is harder to 
give up, even their political prejudices, forgetting 
past diff"erences, burying all partisanship, determined 
that while treason threatened the Capital, they would 
know nothing but an endangered country and an in- 
sulted flag. Oh, for a return of that spirit ! It were 
cheaply purchased by the bombardment of a North- 
ern city. 

Again, I thought of Bunker Hill, as early on a 
gloomy morning in December, 1862, I stood by the 



14 ORATION. 

banks of the Rappahannock, and witnessed the 
withdrawal of a brave, noble, baffled army. The dim 
stars looked • down sadly upon our retiring troops, 
and the wind that swept through the valley seemed 
to be sighing for the defeat of a great cause, and 
the downfall of a great nation. But as I sat by the 
camp-fires of the bivouac, — better still, as I stood by 
the bedside of wounded soldiers in many a hospital, 
and heard men freshly borne from that lost battle at 
Fredericksburg, longing for health and strength that 
they might once more follow to the field the same 
commander, any commander, — always the same dear 
flag, — I felt that, in spite of all that we had lost, the 
triumph of the North was sure. 

One lesson more from Bunker Hill. It has been 
said, that when Pitcairn mounted the rampart of the 
redoubt, he fell pierced by a bullet from the musket 
of a colored volunteer. And do you ask, " is the in- 
evitable negro here also?" Yes, he is here. He 
stood on Bunker Hill, as afterwards he stood in the 
lines at Rhode Island, in the earthworks at Red Bank, 
as now he stands side by side with the bravest before 
the walls of Richmond, where the crimsoned ground 
gives token that he is indeed, " of one blood " with his 
comrades. He is here, by no fault of his, by no choice 
of his, for our good or for evil ; for good, if we 
frankly accept his proffered aid, with its honest, natural 
results ; for evil, if now, when our rivers are turned 



ORATION. 15 

into blood, and when the first-born in so many a house- 
hold lies dead, we still refuse to listen to the voice that 
thunders from on high — "Let my People go." 

After the 17th of June, the heart of the nation cried 
out for independence, while Congress, lagging far be- 
hind the people, delayed to speak the decisive word. 
Before the 19th of April, " no thinking man" breathed 
such a wish. The leading patriots repelled the charge 
of desiring it, as a slander. In 1774, Congress:, on the 
motion of a most radical member, passed a resolve, 
which not only excluded all idea of separation, but 
admitted the right of Parliament to lay taxes for the 
regulation of trade. And timid, honest men pointed 
to this vote, and could not see that ages of progress 
had rolled on since it was passed. They failed to rec- 
ognize the truth stated by Paine in his Common Sense, 
that " all plans and proposals prior to the 19th of 
April, i. e. the commencement of hostilities, are like 
an old almanac, however proper once, useless and 
superseded now." They did not know that in revolu- 
tionary times the wisdom of last year is folly, and the 
truth of yesterday is a lie to-day. 

Bolder spirits said: "What was true in 1774, has 
ceased to be true in '75, in the presence of actual war. 
Concord and Bunker Hill, the burning of Charlestown 
and Falmouth, the fall of Warren and Montgomery, 
have changed our relations to England, and conferred 
new rights on the colonists. The land which has been 



16 ORATION. 

enriched with the blood of so many brave men must 
forever be a free land. Since we must fight, it should 
be with every power, and for the highest prize." They 
argued truly, that foreign nations which would care 
little for a. technical issue of constitutional law, would 
be moved to sympathy when the contest concerned the 
freedom of a continent. These bolder counsels, and 
safer, became bolder, finally prevailed, and our country 
took its place among the nations of the earth. 

I need hardly point out the parallel of our own day. 
In 1861, Congress, "by a vote nearly unanimous," re- 
solved that Government had no right and no purpose 
to attack slavery in the States ; and, as the conserv- 
atives of '75 turned to the resolutions of 74, so do 
many worthy men cling to the vote of 1861. But the 
people have said : " Events have changed, and our 
rights have changed with them. Slavery is no longer 
a quiet, ' domestic institution.' It is an aggressive 
force ; it has become the strength of the Rebellion. It 
is an engine of war which treason uses against us, and 
which we ought to turn against treason." They have 
called upon our rulers to put on the whole armor of 
the powers with which the fact of war has supplied 
them. They have urged that in repressing Rebellion, 
it is not only a right but a duty to wield " the State's 
whole thunder." And as history records that the folly 
of Stamp Act, and Tea Tax and Port Bill made us an 
independent nation, so future historians will relate that 



ORATION. 17 

the madness of Secession and the crime of Rebellion 
wrought the deliverance of a race from bondage. And 
it will be reckoned among the chief glories of our age 
and of our country, that — 

"In her councils statesmen met, 
Who knew the seasons, when to tak6 
Occasion by the hand, and make 
The hounds of freedom wider yet." 

Before uniting in the Declaration Congress had done 
the other act that renders their name immortal. They 
had placed Washington at the head of the army. 
Would that time allowed us to trace his steps from his 
first bloodless victory on Dorchester Heights, victory of 
the spade and pickaxe, those emblems of soldierly en- 
durance and patience, of which his whole life was the 
fitter emblem, — on through the reverses in New York, 
the brilliant retreat across New Jersey, the sorrows of 
Valley Forge, to the crowning glory of Yorktown. Every 
hour of his life for these seven years teaches a people 
engaged in a war ' for existence the duty of uncondi- 
tional loyalty to their country, unwavering hope of her 
triumph. These are the great lessons which his life 
affords to ours. 

I use the word loyalty as representing the senti- 
ment, the instinct, the passion of patriotism. I know 
it has been denied by foreign writers that this virtue 
is possible in a republic, and it has been said on high 

3 



18 ORATION, 



legal authority at home, that it only includes those 
duties which are " required " by the Constitution and 
the laws. Fortunately, no such theory had chilled 
the hearts of our people, our sailors and our soldiers. 
They did not ask foreign authors whether they were 
capable of this virtue, nor take legal advice as to the 
precise measure of allegiance which they owed to 
the Union. They have taken counsel of their own 
hearts, and clustered round the symbol of American 
loyalty, — not the person of a monarch, but a stain- 
less flag. And for those who deny the possibility of 
passionate loyalty in republican bosoms, their simple 
answer has been that for it they can die. 

This sentiment imposes no terms on Government. 
It does not demand the adoption of our favorite 
measures or the promotion of our favorite men. It 
simply follows the standard of the Republic. Its 
language is — 

" All that I am, and have, and hope," 

on earth, T consecrate to thee, my country. Even 
rights which are held dear in peace, a patriot gladly 
gives up in the hour of war, for he knows that all 
rights, and possessions, and hopes depend upon his 
country's triumph. Honest advice and fair criticism 
are not only rights, but duties. The intellect as well 
as the heart should pay its whole tribute to the Gov- 
ernment engaged in war. But if any man (no mat- 



ORATION. 19 

ter to what party or faction he belongs) purposely 
thwarts the efforts of Government in crushing E-ebel- 
. lion, — if he opposes its policy in war simply be- 
cause it is the policy of Government, — if for per- 
sonal or political ends he rejoices in its failures, and 
makes light of its success, and magnifies its losses, 
and exaggerates its errors, — if any man, from what- 
ever motive, seeks to weaken the arm of his country 
when it is lifted against Rebellion, that man is a 
traitor to America. 

Here the civilian may learn a lesson from the sol- 
dier. When the first day at Shiloh is to be retrieved, 
or Fort Donelson is to be carried, or Missionary Ridge 
is to be climbed, then is no time to quarrel about pay 
or rations or promotions, no time to make ill-founded 
complaints or well-founded complaints. Then is the 
time to advance with one tread and to strike as with 
one hand, till treason yields before united loyalty. 
I borrow my confession of faith from the lips of one 
brave soldier, as I find its best illustrations in the 
lives of all brave soldiers. " My creed," said Burn- 
side, " my creed is brief. This Government must be 
sustained. This Rebellion must be put down." And 
no words can equal the lesson of single-hearted de- 
votion to country, taught by the lives of such pat- 
riots as Grant and Meade and Hancock, who seek 
no end but their country's good, — who know no 
politics except her salvation. 



20 ORATION. 

I take an illustration of this virtue, as soldiers 
understand it, from the well-known story of that 
Ohio Colonel, who, on the second day of Murfrees- 
boro', just as he was leading his regiment to the 
charge, saw his son fall mortally wounded at his 
side. He longed to kneel by the side of his dying 
boy. He longed to hear the words of farewell 
which that boy might speak for the mother who 
should no more see her child returning to his home. 
But there was duty to be done, — there was Rebel- 
lion to be crushed, — there was a country to be 
served ; . and he only said to one that could be 
spared, " Look out for Johnny," and led his regi- 
ment right onward to battle and to victory. Just so 
straightforward, so unwavering, so unconditional, 
should be the loyalty with which we " march under 
the flag, and keep step to the music " of an imper- 
illed Union. 

Does it seem hard to reconcile freedom of thought 
and speech with devoted support of a Government 
whose warlike policy you do not wholly approve ? 
Learn a lesson, then, from the course of Daniel 
Webster, during the war of 1812. He did not ap- 
prove the war ; he thought it might have been 
avoided ; he knew it might be better managed ; but 
it was his country's war and it was just ; and he 
who claimed the right of free discussion for himself 
and his children, — he who would maintain it, liv- 



ORATION. 21 

ing or dying, exerted all his powers to make tlie 
war successful. In later days, when taunted by Mr. 
Calhoun, with his conduct at this period, he pointed 
to the record, and defied any man to show that, in 
anything, he had been wanting in fidelity or loyalty 
to the country which he served. He might well 
boast that he and such as he had advocated that 
gallant Navy, whose thunders testified to the loyalty 
of New England, while they shook the supremacy 
of Old England on the seas. It is but a iew days, 
since the feeble remnant of a noble regiment march- 
ing through our streets reminded us that the example 
of Daniel Webster had not been lost upon his son ; 
and that in the hour of his country's need he had 
been faithful unto death. 

Take another illustration from English history. 
When the minds of men were maddened by the 
French Revolution, England plunged into a series of 
wars that ought to teach her forever the folly of in- 
terfering in the aflfairs of oth,er States. And in the 
darkest hour of that contest, when Austerlitz had 
almost blotted out the boundaries from the map of 
Europe, the chief opponent of the war was placed 
in power. And how did Charles Fox bear himself 
during the few months that remained to him of life ? 
Hear what the great tory poet said of him : — 

" When Europe crouched 'neath France's yoke, 
And Austria bowed and Prussia broke, 



22 ORATION. 

And tte firm Eussian's purpose brave 
Was bartered by a timorous slave, 
Even then dishonor's peace he spurned, 
The sullied olive-branch returned, 
Stood for his country's glories fast, 
And nailed her colors to the mast." 

In that spirit all the North should be to-day, as one 
man for the Union. 

Never had men such motives as Americans now have 
for unbounded devotion to country. A great weight 
of glory urges us on. An unfathomable gulf of infa- 
my and despair awaits us if we. fail. It is no less true 
because we have heard it so often — it is the more true 
because we have almost forgotten it, that on the issue 
of this contest hang all our earthly hopes. If dis- 
union prevails we can only look forward to new 
disunions, to border war, to civil war, to foreign 
domination, to usurpation, to anarchy, to all manner of 
desolation. To-night the loving father, as he looks 
upon his sleeping children, may well say, " if this 
Rebellion triumphs, it were better for them that they 
had never been born." 

Even now a foreign reviewer looks for, " the dim 
headlands of new empire," that are to emerge from the 
stormy sea in which the Union has sunk. He speaks 
of new disintegration of the Union as certain, and 
gloats over the prospect, that this war, with all its 
horrors, is only the first act in a grand drama of 



ORATION. 23 

revolutions. It is well to be taught by an enemy. 
Never before was presented to a nation so immedi- 
ately the issue of victory or death. 

It is not for ourselves alone ; it is for the poor 
and oppressed of all lands, that we would maintain 
this great City of Refuge. Hear what a liberal 
writer of the greatest and richest among European 
empires has just said of his own country : " Millions 
of our laboring population live constantly in view of 
penal pauperism, and nearly a million of them on 
the average are actually paupers. They pass through 
life without hope ; they die in degradation ; the only 
haven of their old age, after a life of toil, is the 
workhouse." He might have added that, from this 
powerful monarchy, peaceful, insolent in its pros- 
perity, the working men are now flying by tens of 
thousands and seeking an asylum here, — hastening 
from that 

" Land of settled government " 

to this distracted theatre of civil war. What an as- 
surance of faith, what an omen of victory ! From the 
interested forebodings of tory lords and of Quarterly 
Reviewers, I turn to the instinctive action of the 
poor Irish immigrant, and gain new hope for my 
country. 

Nor is it only as a refuge ; it is as an example 
alike to oppressors and oppressed, that we would 



24 ORATION. 

maintain the Union. How in past days our example 
has cheered the hopes of those who love the rights 
of man. From Italy, from Hungary, from Poland — 
I dare not quite forget her ; from Ireland, true 
" Niobe of nations," the victims of wrong have 
looked toward America, and found hope. 

I recall the words of Lord Brougham in his earlier 
and better days. " Long," he said, " long may that 
great Union last ! its endurance is of paramount im- 
portance to the peace of the world, to the best interests 
of humanity, to the general improvement of mankind." 

Yes, long may it endure ! The pra)^er shall be 
granted, although many a friend prove false. 

If we needed any additional stimulus to our patriot- 
ism we ought to find it in the devoted loyalty of the 
Unionists at the South. When the story of their 
fidelity, their endurance, their sufferings is fully written, 
we shall gain new ideas of the capacity of men for 
heroism. Shame on us, if, Avhile we can keep a reg- 
iment in the field, we deliver up these men and women 
to the tender mercies of the Rebel government. 

And does the loyalty of any man waver because of 
the vast sacrifices we have made 1 Those very sacri- 
fices are reasons why we cannot falter in our course. 
Voices, from the past bid us go on. The slumbers 
of the dead would be disquieted if we failed in service 
to the cause for which they fell. As we looked last 
week upon " the riderless horse " of the brave Colonel 



ORATION. 25 

Blaisdell, we felt a new thrill of devotion. The com- 
munity that sends such a man as General Stevenson 
to die is pledged never to desert the cause for which 
he gave his life. Time would fail me if I sought to 
recall the names of those who have fought bravely 
and died nobly. Honor and fame and gratitude to 
their memory forever ; and better than honor and 
fame and gratitude, unwaverinir devotion to the cause 
which has been hallowed by their blood. Nor does 
the call to duty come from the dead alone. The 
mere presence of a brave man like Colonel Guiney, 
the commander of " the fighting ninth regiment," who 
honors us to-day, ought to arouse us all. Well might 
I be silent, and let his " dumb wounds " plead for the 
cause he loves and serves so well. 

One limit bounds the exercise of unconditional loy- 
alty. It is the limit recognised by that loyal Scotchman, 
who " would die to serve his country, but would not 
do a base act to save her." No duty requires us to 
undervalue the courage of our opponents. Self- 
respect should teach us to cease from thus libelling 
the valor of our own soldiers. It is time to refrain 
from ridiculing the " fleet-footed Virginians," when 
we remember that their State has given to the Rebel 
side the misguided virtues of Robert Lee and of Stone- 
wall Jackson. The time may come when Southern 
men will no longer sneer at the avarice of Yankees 
who have sacrificed untold millions for a principle, 



26 ORATION. * 

nor scoff at the cowardice of men whose steel they 
have so often felt. Let us honestly admit that we are 
surprised at the energy and endurance of the Rebels ; 
that we wonder at the display of their power in the 
construction of mail-clad ships, of railroad material, 
of all the enginery of war. And may we not hope 
that this newborn skill is providentially designed, with 
free labor, to guide the South by unknown ways to 
strange industrial glories, and to make of it a worthy 
portion of the reconstructed Union'? And is it too 
wild a dream, that one bond of that Union shall be 
the mutual respect which each section has learned to 
feel for the prowess of the other displayed upon a hun- 
dred battle-fields 1 

It is no part and no proof of loyalty to denounce 
as traitors those who only differ with us as to the 
true method of crushing Rebellion. Within the limits 
of devotion to the Union there is room for wide differ- 
ence of opinion as to measures and men. Is it wise 
or just to announce to the South and to foreign nations 
that the North is almost equally divided between 
Unionists and Rebels ; that the great State of Pennsyl- 
vania can only give a slender majority against treason ; 
that it needs a sharp contest, every Spring, to decide 
whether New Hampshire is for Rebellion or against 
it, and that no one is quite sure on which side the 
State of New York now stands ? — No : reason with 
your neighbors ; tell them, if you think so, that their 



ORATION. 27 

course threatens ruin to the country ; convince them if 
you can ; vote them down if you can ; but do not 
lightly hurl the charge of treason against those whose 
whole hope in life is bound up in the preservation of 
the Union. 

I know that these views mav not be altoarether ac- 
ceptable. Wholesale denunciation is cheaper and 
easier and more popular. But if I should fail to say 
this, — if I should seem to denounce as disloyal those, 
who have given their blood or the blood of their chil- 
dren for the Union, I should lack the approval of one 
voice, without which the applause of the world is 
altogether vanity. 

I spoke of the duty of hope. I call it a duty. And 
to me the schoolboy who plays at putting down Rebel- 
lion, and shouts to his comrades that " we shall beat 
the Rebels yet," is a truer patriot, and for this hour a 
better statesman than the ablest member of Congress, 
who can find no higher use for his talents than to 
depress our hopes, and divide our energies, and to 
paralyze our counsels. 

I do not mean that unreasoning and vainglorious 
hope, which looks for overwhelming victory whenever 
a brigade changes its position ; and prophesies the 
immediate end of Rebellion at every trifling success of 
our arms. That false hope, too often followed by 
unmanly and unpatriotic despair, has been a curse to 
the Nation. I mean that well-grounded confidence 



28 ORATION. 

founded in the knowledge of our resources and in 
the assurance of right, which is among the chief of 
our resources ; that abiding hope, which in adversity 
and prosperity, through good report and through evil 
report, follows the fortunes of the country, and trusts 
in God for its triumph. 

I find a motto for patriots in the phrase, which a 
brave king gave to the statesmen of Great Britain, 
when foreign war and civil dissension threatened the 
existence of the nation, and when the people too 
readily gave themselves up to unreasonable elevation 
and depression of spirits. He wrote to a friend, that 
crossing the German Ocean on a stormy night, with a 
head wind and a heavy sea, he heard the captain call- 
ing out every minute to the helmsman : " Steady, 
steady, steady." And he gave this to be the watch- 
word of every loyal Englishman, until the day of peril 
should pass away. So, it might be our watchword 
now, — " Steady." No slacking of effort in the mo- 
ment of success ; no dejection in the hour of danger. 
" Steady " for the Union and the right. If I could be 
heard by him who holds the helm of state, I would say 
to him, even, — " Steady. The ship you steer is 
freighted with the best hopes of man. The destinies 
of generations unborn depend upon you. At last, 
the ship is steering for the North Star. Now, steady, 
steady, steady." 

I find grounds of hope in the devotion with which 



ORATION. 29 

our people on land and sea, at home and in the field, 
have upheld the cause of their country. In gloomy 
hours I call to mind the heroic deeds with which the 
war has been tilled, and I dare not doubt our final 
triumph. I think of the Cumberland going down with 
her flag flying, her mutilated gunner, firing one more 
shot for the honor of the country ; of that other gun- 
ner, who shut himself in the magazine of a burning 
ship, that he might not add to her danger by trying 
to escape ; of the dying General, whose last wish was 
that he might lie with his face toward the enemy ; 
of our heroic Bartlett, whose example shows that no 
wounds less than mortal can hold back a patriot from 
his country's service, and whose courage stayed the 
hand even of Rebel sharpshooters. — a breath of chiv- 
alrv wafted from the regions of old romance. I re- 
member Sergeant Carney at Fort Wagner seizing the 
flag as the standard-bearer fell ; maimed, crawling on 
his hands and knees, but holding it up from contact 
with the ground, and saving " the symbol dear." I 
call to mind the pilot of the Escort, who, with a 
bullet in his brain, steered the boat that bore General 
Foster to rescue our beleagured troops, living only to 
accomplish his work, with memory, judgment, reason 
all gone, living twelve minutes on loyalty alone, 
shaming in those minutes how many of our useless 
lives. I remember all these noble men and noble 
acts and noble deaths, and I cannot believe that God 



30 ORATION. 

has decreed failure to a cause for which such blood 
has been shed. 

When I think of the heroism displayed in the held, 
of the devotion shown at home, of the men and women 
whose lives have been saved from guilty dissipation, 
or from that utter frivolity which is only a hair's 
breadth this side of guilty dissipation, redeemed and 
consecrated to patriotism, I find some compensation 
even for the horrors that have befallen us. I see that 
there is life saved as well as life lost, and, joining with 
the poet — 

" Count it a covenant that He leads us on 
Beneath the cloud and through the crimson sea." 

The part which the Avomen of the North have taken 
in this contest must not be omitted, often as it has 
been set forth. When, on the twelfth of May, the 
glorious Hancock hurled his triumphant columns upon 
the panic-stricken ranks of Rebellion, first among the 
foremost, and bravest of the brave was our own 
" young gallant" Barlow. I say our own, for, although 
enlisted in New York, he was born and bred in Mas- 
sachusetts ; and bright as her roll of honor is, we 
cannot afford to lose one such name as his. Soldiers 
who saw that charge have told me that it was like the- 
bursting of a thunder-cloud ; and well I knoAV the 
fiery soul that lent electric force to the falling bolt. 
And you will not ask what has this to do with the 



ORATION. 31 

services of women ; for all America lias heard that 
when the youthful General lay stretched upon the 
■field at Gettysburg, pierced by five ghastly wounds, 
not thought to be worth the trouble of paroling by his 
captors, given up for dead, then his faithful wife found 
him, with just enough of blood left in his veins to 
enable him to be nursed into a hero once more, — 
stood by him, and would not let him die, but gave 
him again to his country. And what she did on a 
conspicuous stage, a thousand women have done in the 
hospital, on the field of battle, in the soldiers' homes, 
in ten thousand busy circles of industry, - — and thus 
woman has given whole regiments to do battle for the 
Union. 

Nor thus alone have women served their country's 
cause. Loving wives have said to their husbands: 
" Go, fight for the heritage of our children ; " and 
tender mothers have charged their sons : " Make me 
proud of you by your death or by your life." 

We have heard of the noble woman who said to 
her son : '• Take the commission. If you accept the 
command of a colored regiment, I shall feel as proud 
of you as if you had been shot." He took the com- 
mand, and died in glory, leading his brave men to 
battle. And the double wreath of pride was woven 
for that mother's brow. We have heard of that true- 
hearted girl who turned from the fresh grave of her 
brother, and such a brother, to say to the Governor : 



32 ORATION. 



" We thanked you when you gave our brother a com- 
mission. We thank you more to-day." And in all 
this devotion to the right we see an omen of victory. 

Even in the prodigality which is the tasteless and 
accursed fashion of this day there is ground of hope. 
I wonder that men and women can enjoy the vulgar 
luxury which is the madness of the hour. I wonder 
that they can endure it, while their dearest friends 
are dying in the field, and their best hopes are all 
endangered. But I see in it proofs of untouched re- 
sources, of almost boundless wealth ; and I have faith 
that, when danger is imminent, all these resources will 
be consecrated to the service of the country. 

I find grounds of hope even in the strange atrocities 
wdth which this Rebellion has been stained. I would 
do justice to the courage of our enemies. Language 
can hardly do justice to their cruelty. As I read of 
the captives at Fort Pillow, butchered, burned alive, 
then buried so hastily that the hands of the dead ap- 
peared on the surface of the earth, which refused to 
hide the crime, I thought of those "poor hands" of 
which Burke spoke so pathetically, — powerless here, 
but mighty when stretched towards the heavens for 
justice. We are told that in the Revolution the mur- 
der of one woman by the Indian allies of England, 
mourned and condemned by the British General, had 
power to arouse States and to array armies on our 
side. It enabled the heroic Stark to turn back the 



ORATION. 33 

tide of battle, and to prepare for the. capture of Bur- 
goyne. What then must be the result of these 
repeated horrors, not condemned, but justified and 
applauded by the Southern press, — accepted as part 
of their system of warfare "? The slaughter and the 
starvation of prisoners are not the weapons of a cause 
to which victory has been decreed. 

When Grant thunders against the walls of Rich- 
mond, his batteries will have a strength not shown 
by the army returns. Great wrongs, cruel agonies, 
gigantic offences will add force to his artillery. 

Remember, this is not a solitary instance of Rebel 
cruelty. At Milliken's Bend, prisoners of war, taken 
in arms for their country, guilty of no crime, except 
the color of their skin, were literally crucified upon 
the trees of the forest. Ah, it needed not this crime 
to remind us that the strongest bond which links 
together all nations and races of men is the recollec- 
tion that the same great sacrifice was once off"ered 
for all. 

From those haunted forests, from the blood-stained 
enclosure of Fort Pillow, from the dungeons, where 
prisoners of war have been starved into imbecility or 
death, from a hundred plantations where a little pile 
of ashes has been the only memorial of a foul murder, 
there has gone an army of martyrs, who stand before 
the throne, and cry, "How long, O Lord, how long?" 

Men talk of retaliation. When the record of these 



34 ORATION. 

outrages has been fully spread before the nations of 
Europe, then retaliation is begun. When the patience 
of a just God is exhausted, then will the blood of the 
fallen be gloriously avenged. 

I spoke of hope. Let us rather call it faith, — 
faith that a Rebellion founded in a denial of human 
rights, and sustained by daily wrongs, cannot be des- 
tined to prevail. Because we are so thoroughly in the 
right, — because the interests of mankind for genera- 
tions to come depend upon our success, — because the 
hopes and prayers of good men everywhere, the living 
and the dead, are with us, — we cannot fail. 

When the battle of Lookout Mountain was fought, 
the imagination of men was greatly moved when they 
learned that the victory of the gallant Hooker was 
won literally above the clouds. It is my faith, that 
the battle of America is indeed to be fought and 
won far above the clouds. Beyond the circle of the 
heavens sits the Sole Giver of Victory, and decrees 
triumph to the nation that supports His laws. There- 
fore, we will not fear for America, whatever may 
befall her. If dark days come — if delay still tries 
our patience, we will remember the protracted toils 
of our fathers, and call to mind the outstretched arm 
by which their deliverance was wrought. We need 
not go back so far to find omens of good. Recall 
the gloomy days through which we lived, one year 
ago, when with heavy hearts we prepared to keep this 



ORATION. 85 

anniversary. The invading Rebels stood on our soil. 
Their faces vrere set towards our chief cities. And 
some, who had hoped till then, lost all 'hope. The 
heavens seemed deaf to the prayers of loyal men. 
Some were adjudged to be impious in their despairing 
cries. So passed for us the first of July, the 'second, 
and the third. The fourth of July came, and as we 
looked toward Gettysburg the flashes of Meade's artil- 
lery — 

" Gave proof through the night 
That our flag was still there." 

We looked again and it waved over captured Vicks- 
burg ; and yet a little while, and it streamed from 
the ramparts of Port Hudson, where Massachusetts 
hands had placed, it, and we knew that the dear old 
flag was safe. Passing through such a danger, saved 
by such a deliverance, he is a coward that doubts 
the final triumph of the Union. Whether we win 
or lose this campaign, let us hope for that triumph. 
Failure, if it comes, will only rekindle the spirit 
of our nation. The lust of gold, the madness of lux- 
ury and fashion, the strife of party, will give way 
to universal patriotism, in the presence of a peril 
which we feel. Foreign intervention, if that is threat- 
ened, will make of us, more than ever, more than any- 
thing, one people. I look for another day of perfect 
union, of indignant loyalty, of assured victory. 



36 ORATION. 

" 'Tis the day, when the men of the slumbering North 
Again for the land of our pride shall come forth, 
And speaking stout words, which stout hearts shall maintain, 
Proclaim our fair country a Nation again — 

The men of the North. 

For the tides of the sea are unruffled, and slow, 
And as calmly and coldly their pulses may flow, 
But as soon shall you roll back that fathomless tide 
As turn from their slow-chosen purpose aside 
The men of the North." 

I cannot believe that the glories of our fathers' days 
and of their fathers', the grand voices that sound 
from two centuries of civilized life in America, are 
but a prelude to the dirge which humanity would 
chant over the grave of a ruined nation and a lost 
hope. I rather count the sad tidings which too often 
grieve our ears, as the mournful notes which will lend 
grandeur to that full anthem of praise which shall 
burst from the heart of a redeemed nation as they 
shout with one accord : " Sing unto the Lord, for he 
hath triumphed gloriously." 

O, that the grand old man, who has just gone home 
from Earth, could have lived to see that day. You 
know how true and brave, how loyal and hopeful 
he was to the last moment of his life. Our children's 
children will be glad to hear from us, that we knew 
a man who had seen Washington, and who was worthy 



ORATION. 37 

to see him. He who remembered the achievement of 
his country's independence, longed to behold her final 
triumph. And who doubts that he will see it ? Em- 
ployed, as we ]ove to believe — 

" In those great offices, that suit 
The full-grown energies of heaven," 

he will look from the skies and feel new joy, even 
there, as he sees that right is victorious, and that 
the will of God is done in the councils of men. 



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